Get the most out of your home audio system with high quality, oxygen-free, pure bare copper speaker wire from Monoprice!

This speaker wire features two conductors made of high purity (greater than 99.95% pure), oxygen-free bare copper. Pure Bare Copper is a superior conductor to the copper clad aluminum (CCA) conductors used in most other inexpensive speaker wire. CCA is only about 68% as conductive as pure bare copper. This additional resistance is added to the impedance of your speakers and can negatively effect the sound.

For the wire to have no audible effect, the total wire resistance should be no more than 5% of the lowest impedance of your speakers. Even speakers rated for a nominal 8-ohms, may dip to as low as 4-ohms at some frequencies, which further reduces the total cable resistance allowed in the wire. Using Pure Bare Copper speaker wire ensures that the total load put on the amplifier remains as close as possible to the impedance curve of your speakers.

For example, a 16AWG 2-conductor Pure Bare Copper speaker wire has a total resistance of 0.803 ohms per 100 feet (both directions must be considered). By comparison, a 16AWG 2-conductor CCA speaker wire has a total resistance of 1.181 ohms per 100 feet. Assuming 4 ohms is the lowest impedance of your speakers, a speaker wire run can be no more 0.2-ohms total. 20 feet of 16AWG Pure Bare Copper would be 0.1606 ohms, well under the 0.2-ohm limit. On the other hand, 20 feet of 16AWG CCA would be 0.2362 ohms, well OVER the 0.2-ohm limit.

Each conductor is jacketed with color-coded PVC for easy polarity identification. The entire cable assembly is jacketed in a white, CL2-rated PVC material. The CL2 rating indicates that the cable complies with fire safety and insurance requirements, making it safe for use inside the walls of residential class buildings.

Answer: No. Directional wire is marketing spin to make you think the cables are somehow better.

Question: What is AWG?

Answer: AWG stands for American Wire Gauge. It is a measure of the thickness of the wires inside the cable. Lower numbers represent a thicker cable.

The measurement is the diameter of the cross section of wire. It is expressed as the number of turns required for the width of the bare wire to make 1 inch. So a 12AWG cable would have wires that are 1/12 of an inch thick.

The outer diameter of the cables jacket is not an accurate expression of gauge since manufacturers can simply put a thicker jacket to make a wire appear to have a heavier gauge.

Question: What is CL2?Do these cable have to go in-wall?

Answer: CL2 rating come from Underwriters Laboratories (UL). It means that these cables have a slow burning outer jacket, should meet most fire codes and are safe for in-wall installations.

The CL2 rating does not affect the appearance or performance of the cables. They can be used in or out of wall.

Question: I've heard that the diameter of these wires was less than that of competitors wires of the same gauge. I thought gauge was a standardized measurement, why would the diameters be different?

Answer: AWG (American Wire Gauge) is a standardized form of measurement. Gauge is expressed as the number of turns it takes the wire to equal an inch. So with a 12AWG wire, for instance, the bare wire (no plastic jacket) will take 12 turns around a spool to make a 1 inch wide coil. In other words, simply put, the bare wire is 1/12" wide. A lot of cable manufacturers will wrap their wires in an extra thick PVC jacket or put plastic filtaments between the strands to make the cable appear much thicker than it. But the amount of copper remains the same.

Question: Does higher strand count provide better audio quality?

Answer: There is a lot of spin placed on wires and cables to justify one type or another. The main reason for this is to justify an over inflated price. Fact is, stranding provides flexibility. Solid wire conductors can deliver high audio quality and arguably better run lengths, but would be more brittle and tend to break. One break and you loose connectivity. Stranded cables would be more flexible and a break in one or more lines will not cut the signal flow. But, it doesn''t magically improve audio performance.

Audio quality is influenced more by the quality of the copper. That is better milled, high purity copper will have lower signal resistance and less fluctuation in density which will lead to better signal integrity and more pure audio. All our speaker wires are milled from high quality, oxygen-free copper.

Question: How do I select the proper gauge for my application?

Answer: Different people will have their own opinions about what gauge is proper for what length. The quality of the equipment can also play a factor. The following is a general guide for picking gauges for certain lengths.

0-25ft - 18AWG25-50ft - 16AWG50-75ft - 14AWG75 & up - 12AWG

Question: Can the outer jacket of the cables be painted?

Answer: It is possible to paint these cables. Use only exterior acrylic latex paint. All other types of paint will simply peel off.

Monoprice welcomes your feedback. The review you submit will be displayed on the product's review page after it has been verified. It should take about 2-3 business days for this process. Monoprice verifies customer reviews and will publish them after making sure they comply with our review guidelines. You may be contacted by Monoprice regarding your submission.

We will remove reviews that:

Contain profanity or other objectionable content. Should you find any profanity or objectionable content, please contact us at tech@monoprice.com

Fail to focus on the product. Complaints about shipping or customer service issues will be forwarded to Customer Service to be addressed. Reviews that discuss other products, catalog copy, pricing, or other ancillary issues will be removed.

Contain advertisements or promotional materials or contain links to external content. Monoprice will also remove reviews submitted by or on behalf of a company with an interest in a competing product.

Any other content we deem to be inappropriate.

If you believe you may have received a defective unit, remember that Monoprice backs everything we sell with a warranty. Please use our automated return service to request a replacement. Any other issues with your order not directly related to the product itself should be directed to our online customer support chat.

Note: All or part of any product review including the Review Title, "Your Nickname", Rating, Pros/Cons, images and all other parts of the review itself may be used by Monoprice in future marketing campaigns or promotions in any media. Submission of a product review signifies consent that the information you submit may be used at Monoprice's discretion without any further notice or expectation of compensation. You are further representing that any submission is wholly an original creation by you and/or that any portion taken from third party sources have fully cleared for use.